Photography: lenses Filters

Ive got a Canon 40D with a 28-135mm lens. I'm heading to the Canadian Rockies. Is there a particular ens I should get for outdoor photography? Any type of filter? I think I've got a basic protective something over the lens now. (Sunpack 72mm UV)

Not really. I mean you could pick up a polarizer to fiddle around with on bright sunny days. But eh...

28 mm on a cropped sensor isn't super wide, but a decent wide lens is a bit of cash. You might want to think about bringing one of these bad boys to let you use longer exposure times for landscape shots. (the smaller the aperture, the larger the depth of field, the longer the shutter time)

If you want to shoot wildlife 135 is plenty long unless you want to spend a bunch of money. And carry a 15lb lens.

“One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. 'Oh, no!', I said, 'Disneyland burned down.' He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.”
~Jack Handey

Stone, if it's not too late, you might want to pick up a split graduated filter if you're shooting landscapes. Not necessarily recommending the Singh-Ray split grads (I have their Vari-ND and love it), but they have good info and examples on their site:

Basically a split grad is a rectangular (or square) filter that's clear on one half and darker on the other. You hold the darker side up in from of your lens, the transition area over the horizon so the dark side covers the sky. You can then meter for the foreground subject matter (mountains, etc) and the filter prevents the sky from overexposing.

I don't bother with a UV filter any more and haven't missed it. It doesn't offer much protection at all, and as my photography mentor said, "Why would you want to interfere with the optics of your expensive lens with a filter that's not nearly as good?" I had to admit he had a point.

For what it's worth, I carry my camera every single day, and have been throwing it in my handbag for years with the lens sans filter and haven't had a scratch yet.

my sony nex 3n's kit lens died and after initially thinking i'd sell the body i learned that the nex line is apparently prized by far more adept photographers than me for matching vintage manual lenses to. i've purchased an olympus zuiko 50 mm lens with a nex adapter on ebay but also have someone locally who has the following pentax mount lenses available. i don't know prices yet but more importantly i have no idea if/which of these is worth my while. any assistance greatly appreciated.

keep in mind that i'm not going to ever be a great photographer. what i'm looking for is a prime lens that does well in low light that i can take to restaurants instead of my new nikon d3300 (which is not large but is not point and shoot sized like the nex). but i have no idea what would be a decent price to offer for it.

so, as noted in the annoyances thread, the olympus zuiko 50 mm f1.8 lens i ordered turned out to be a 28mm 2.8 lens on arrival. but it works perfectly with my nex settings adjusted to allow for manual lens use. so much so that i'm actually contemplating returning my newly purchased nikon dslr and just buying another olympus manual zoom lens to go with the nex and adaptor.